The three pillars of sustainability

The conceptualisation of sustainability as ‘three pillars’ – ecological, economic, and social – has gained widespread recognition. The pillars are regarded as balancing force between equally desirable goals within these three categorisations.

However, the three-pillar concept is not universal, as some authors add institutional, cultural, or technical pillars.[1]. This goes hand in hand with the criticism that in the dominant three pillar model economy is presented as a separate pillar, whereas culture and politics are not.[2]

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YouTube – Forstwirtschaft in Deutschland


Time to watch 5m26s


  1. Cf. Purvis et al. (2019) Pu19, p. 685
  2. Spogafa (2024) Sp24